There are no winners in this case. It doesn't matter in the least WHO found the remains of Michelle Le. A 26 year old woman is dead, her murderer is in jail awaiting trial, and the family is attempting to cope with the magnitude of the loss of someone they love and even admired.
I went back through a lot of my posts leading up to this one and noticed that I was pretty much right on target with what I suggested happened to Michelle and how it happened. I’m not looking for a pat on the back but, it appears my investigative skills were on par. My hunches were right when I instructed the search teams to look low and near creek areas for her body. GE was not going to go hiking with Michelle. She was going to get rid of her as soon as possible. When we were in formation ACROSS THE STREET from where her body was found I was looking over the fences in that direction thinking that it was also possible that she was in that direction but we were under orders to stay together and search only specific areas. Yes, our team searched very close to where Michelle was finally located near the country club. I'm sure you can imagine my pain when I realized where she was compared to where we searched. We were less than few yards away.
I found it very interesting that law enforcement was on scene the day of the discovery. While I had seen LE at the command post it was very unusual for them to go with us out to search...like they did the day she was found. I also found it odd that her body was found in an area that had already been cleared by LE. It was an area we were told not to search...until recently, as in… that day.
I have my suspicions that the body was relocated at least once based on the information. While that seems unlikely in some cases, it seems odd where and how her remains were eventually found. Something about that does not add up as she would have been very visible, especially from the air. I had no doubt that animals had done a bit of damage and I'm hoping that it does not impede the discovery process. While it is possible that her body was not moved, it seems unlikely that her body was there and not visible.
They are remaining quiet on the items that were found with her body as if it's a matter of National Security. Although, I would love to now point out very plainly and clearly that had law enforcement not held back so much information we would have found her MUCH FASTER than we had. Case in point, LE let it slip that THEY KNEW where her pings died all along. I checked it out, the cellular towers in that area is VERY close to the drop point, forget triangulation. I'm not buying that they didn't know where she was. Sorry. I have a suspicion that LE -WAITED- until they had enough evidence against GE before becoming more aggressive in finding Michelle's body. I suspect this because of the timing of events...it was all too coincidental to be a matter of chance. They probably feared that she would flee and it would be very costly for extradition.
I noticed how quickly LE pulled back the volunteer searchers and sent in "real" Search and Rescue Teams, which for several months we certainly could have used their help in the field when we were digging through trenches and sifting through leaves in areas that they (LE) knew she wasn't, you know, just keeping people busy while they waited for the tests to come back. It was amazing how quickly they were able to assemble after all the hard work had been done for them. While I am sure that LE wasn't completely dropping the ball in this case - it stings a lot on how they handled themselves and especially how much they didn't tell the family.
The searchers, family, and organizations that assisted the family were very commendable. It was really amazing how many people pulled together to make all of this happen. Therefore, there are a lot of amazing people who contributed and deserve credit, not just one person who found her remains... by a "generously amazingly helpful" hint from LE that "Oh, she eh... might be over there, guys."
The court case is going to be very interesting and hopefully a lot of our questions will be answered. Until then, continue to support the family - with money preferably as a funeral is going to be expensive and they spent a lot of energy, effort, and money with the on-going search efforts.
Pray for them and pray for justice.